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Endgame Bootcamp 2: Part 2

From a human analysis point of view, think about resulting endgames and what each move accomplishes. Re1 has more activity in the sense that you can give checks, attack pawns from behind, etc... But if you look closer all that you are able to achieve with this activity is capturing the opponent's queenside pawns (not enough pieces to attack king, checks don't make opponent's king worse, can't win Black's "dangerous pawns", king defends kingside pawns well), and Rc1 does that quicker.
Once that is figured out you can have a look how the game will develop if you capture some pawns on the queenside and the opponent starts running on the kingside, and I think this needs a bit of good intuition but I think it is quite intuitive that the pushs can be held, with the knight up. Those kind of race situations are often good when you have an extra piece you could control some of the squares in front of the pawns, or sacrifice in a queening battle if necessary, effectively winning all the tempi it takes Black to run a 2nd pawn up the board. If this wasn't the case you might have to play more careful and slowly improve the position while making sure Black doesn't make kingside advances, but the way it is you can be ambitious.
So Rc1 is the most logical way of making progress.

That's how I would have approached the position in a classical game, apart from obviously trying to calculate some simple short variations (which should always be done just to minimize blunders and oversights)

From a human analysis point of view, think about resulting endgames and what each move accomplishes. Re1 has more activity in the sense that you can give checks, attack pawns from behind, etc... But if you look closer all that you are able to achieve with this activity is capturing the opponent's queenside pawns (not enough pieces to attack king, checks don't make opponent's king worse, can't win Black's "dangerous pawns", king defends kingside pawns well), and Rc1 does that quicker. Once that is figured out you can have a look how the game will develop if you capture some pawns on the queenside and the opponent starts running on the kingside, and I think this needs a bit of good intuition but I think it is quite intuitive that the pushs can be held, with the knight up. Those kind of race situations are often good when you have an extra piece you could control some of the squares in front of the pawns, or sacrifice in a queening battle if necessary, effectively winning all the tempi it takes Black to run a 2nd pawn up the board. If this wasn't the case you might have to play more careful and slowly improve the position while making sure Black doesn't make kingside advances, but the way it is you can be ambitious. So Rc1 is the most logical way of making progress. That's how I would have approached the position in a classical game, apart from obviously trying to calculate some simple short variations (which should always be done just to minimize blunders and oversights)

You are using diagrams that are way too large. They cover the entire screen, so one cannot look at the diagram and follow the text. I suggest you make them smaller and make the text wrap around them.

You are using diagrams that are way too large. They cover the entire screen, so one cannot look at the diagram and follow the text. I suggest you make them smaller and make the text wrap around them.

Thank you all for the feedback. I have posted a few more blogs since this one and they are constantly evolving.

Thank you all for the feedback. I have posted a few more blogs since this one and they are constantly evolving.